THE PERSISTENT DECLINE in oil
prices might have proven an economic blessing for Barbados. But for the
renewable energy sector it has become a nightmare as companies providing
installations ponder whether it is worth it to stay in business.
Customers who invested in
grid-tied systems in tandem with Barbados Light & Power (BL&P), the
island’s Canadian-owned monopoly, are also now finding even when they produce
more energy, which has to be sold to the grid, than they consume, it is just
not worth it. Add this to a pull-back of interest from some consumers and you
have a scenario where critics of the decision by the Fair Trading Commission to
tie payment for energy produced from the sun to fossil fuel rates are more
convinced than ever that the system needs to be revamped urgently.
Shawn, whose full name is
withheld, says customers who are faced with rates that are in favour of
the electricity company to the extent that he has ended up producing more
energy than he consumed and yet had to pay. So, rather than making money
from the excess he finds he has a bill. He pointed to a monthly bill
where he generated an average of 6.4 kilowatts daily from his solar photo
voltaic system and averaged usage of 2.7 kilowatts.
For him the investment simply
does not add up. This, at a time when Government has indicated support for
an eventual 100 per cent renewable energy economy and forecasts of expanded
uptake by renewable energy customers to reduce a burgeoning oil import bill. Prominent
businessman Ralph “Bizzy” Williams, who champions renewable energy and has
invested millions of dollars in a sector for which he has a passion “...We
in Barbados have to sell our electricity generated from the sun that requires
no foreign exchange to generate at a price that is lower than the price that we
have to buy it back from the Light & Power. It’s not fair...” laments
Williams, who has his eyes on establishing a $6 million megawatt solar
farm in Cane Garden, St Thomas.
It makes no business sense
to a small Bridgetown entrepreneur such as Shawn, it makes no sense to local
and possibly foreign independent power producers, it makes no sense to
perpetuate a system whose flaws are forecast.
Clearly, we know now
from reality the method of using a fossil fuel model to pay for renewable
energy makes no business sense. That investors cannot be interested in a
sector where they are constrained on their generation of energy, how they use
excess capacity and a business climate transformed not only by regulatory
and policy shortcomings but global energy output and power struggles, should
also be obvious.
Only one interested party
appears to be smiling all the way to the bank – BL&P.
But to cast blame on the
monopoly energy supplier would be unfair, as that company does not make nor
implement Government’s energy policy, nor does it regulate itself, nor does it
have any control over the global oil battle involving Washington, Beijing,
Moscow and the Middle Eastern oil producers.
Fixing all that is wrong with
the regulated pricing mechanism by swiping a lightning sabre out of Star
Wars imagery, though desired, cannot be accomplished in short order.
Not in an environment of governmental silos.
But Government must now
recognise that “hastening slowly” on a pricing mechanism what is unfair to
small investors, consumers, big business and big investors is no
longer valid.
Hence, the need for some urgent
tweaking and consideration of a clear, near term road map or policy on the
renewable energy sector.
Original Post:News N
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